Turns out, Canada “has welcomed more than 40,000 men, women and children fleeing Syria’s civil war since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s October 2015 election.” Witnessed from Canada’s southern neighbor, which is so conflicted about immigrants and refugees, it serves as a lovely vision of what is possible.

Addressing anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are finally staples in major media. The past 18 months provide a jolting reminder of how easily bigotry can raise its ugly head. The good news – the forces of resistance are emerging. Dozens of stories have been published in recent weeks about local communities fighting back against xenophobia and racism. Still, the newly flourishing prejudice in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere makes this a David-and-Goliath situation. In the main media, we hear the stories of these tragic events, but briefly, in sound-bites – summary notes of tragic events.

In a Washington Post article titled “When a Jew Does It,” Rabbi Joshua Hammerman brings the complexity of it all home, sharing the nightmare of a community being threatened, including a powerful shout-out to the local interfaith community. The toughest part of his grief, though, comes in discovering that his synagogue was defaced by one of his own members. The article becomes an extraordinary resource for any community which suffers violence tendered with betrayal.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads a party with an avowed goal of transforming the world’s largest secular democracy into a religious “Hindu” democracy. Modi has been seemingly tolerant towards other religions, but that may be changing as right-wing religious forces surface in Asia. The New York Times reports that “Emboldened by a landslide victory in recent elections in India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, Modi's party named a firebrand Hindu cleric, Yogi Adityanath, as the state’s leader. The move is a shocking rebuke to religious minorities.” Yogi Adityanath said he will not favor any caste or community, but he has a history of spewing hatred, particularly towards Muslims.

For the past 16 years a growing relationship between the U.S. State Department and interfaith leadership has developed from a recognition that diplomats need to understand the religious backgrounds of the leaders and countries where they work. The relationship eventually led to establishing the State Department’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs (RGO). The fear though is that the new Trump administration will close down the RGO as part of major cuts being prescribed for the whole Department. The RGO is a rare example of how religion can be a positive influence on government.

A recent Reuters story titled “‘Religious left’ emerging as U.S. political force in Trump era” reports the emergence of a ‘religious left’ and early signs of political influence. At Union Theological Seminary in New York City, attendance at monthly lectures of social justice have tripled. A session on mass incarceration in January had to turn away 1,000 who wanted to attend after the 600-seat hall filled up.

Muslim feminist Linda Sarsour is proving to be a difficult person to absorb into the resistance movement to the Trump administration. Sarsour helped plan the recent Women’s March in Washington, D.C. and had plenty of face-time during the speeches. A brilliant speaker and organizer, her anti-Zionist passion and rhetoric have made it difficult for Jews, particularly those who go out of their way to promote interfaith programs and relationships. In an interview, Sarsour said feminism and Zionism are incompatible because Zionists ignored the rights of Palestinian women.

An Interfaith Treat

CNN has a wonderfully interfaith, interactive project going. The network invited readers to share what they believe and how they came to realize it. So far 600 have responded, coming from every imaginable background, each speaking from the heart. You can read the article, full of short quotes, with an option to click on each person’s full response. The interfaith resonance of this project is subtle: we witness the complex weave of our culture’s diversity through short, deeply personal, moving stories, and for this reader, the net effect is to bring us all closer. Give CNN an award!